Car-fender.



R. C. MORGANSTERN & E. SHBPHARD.

GAR FENDER.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 21.1908.

Patnted July 20, 1909.-

STATES niais l.

PATENT OFFICE- ROBERT C. MORGANSTERN AND EDWARD A. SHEPHARD, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

OAR-FENDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 20, 1909.

Application filed April 21, 1908. Serial No. 428,334.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ROBERT C. MORGAN- sTnnN and EDWARD A. SHEPHARD, of Portland, in the county of Multnomah and in the State of Oregon, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inl Car-Fenders, and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accom# panying drawings, in which- Figure l is a top plan view of a car fender constructed in accordance with our invention shown separate from a car, and portions being removed to better illustrate the device; Fig. 2 a side elevation showing a portion of the car, some parts being in section; Fig. 3 a detail view in side elevation of the latch and trip mechanism; Fig. 4 a detail view, parts being 1n elevation and parts in section,

showing the means for detachably mounting the front roller; and Fig. 5 a detail view in cross section on the line 5 5 of Fig. l.

The object of our invention is to provide a fender for street cars or other vehicles which will have the qualities of preventing persons passing beneath the car, and at the same time avoiding shock or injury Vto them from contact with the fender; of easily and promptly being placed into and out of position; and of collapsibility or foldability into a compact space to enable the car to be coupled to another car; and for such other purposes as may rendery compact folding desirable.

In producing our invention we have consideredit desirable that normally the fender shall be supported suiciently above the surface of the ground as to be ay hindrance in no degree of the proper operation of the car, but capable of having its forward end dropped into contact with or near the sur face of the ground so as to make it impossible for a body to pass beneath it, and in the carrying out of this idea, we bolt or otherwise attach to the bottom or floor of the car l, at the front thereof, brackets or hangers 2 which at their lower ends support a rod or shaft 3 that extends crosswise of the car to pivotally support our fender frame intermediate its front and rear ends so that by raising the rear end of the frame, the front end of the fender will be lowered, and by the lowering of the rear end of the frame, the front end of the fender will ,be lifted.l

The frame at the rear comprises two parallcl forwardly and rearwardly extending bars l which in themselves, or by reason of .being weighted, are sufficiently heavy to overbalance the counterweight forward of the pivot 3 so as to lift and maintain the front end of the fender at the desired distance above the surface over which they car is passing, and the downward movement of said bars 4 is limited by their engaging a loop or bracket 5 bolted to the under side of the car floor. Attached to the respective frame bars 4 are two other bars t', having forwardly and outwardly inclined portions, from which extend forwardly extending parts that lie parallel to each other, and said bars 4l are made of channel iron, or are otherwise formed so as toprovide on their inner sides longitudinally extending grooves or recesses.v Pivotally connected to the forward extremityof each of said bars 4, is a straight bar 6 also of channel iron, or otherwise formed to provide on its inner side a longitudinally extending groove or channel, the pivotal connection of said bar 6 being for the purpose of enabling it to be swung from a forwardly extendingV position to a crosswise Yextending position as indicated in dotted lines in Figpl, whenit is desired to collapse or reduce the bulk of the fender. lhen the two bars 6 are in their extended position, they support at their front ends a cross shaft or bar 8 upon which is journaled or mounted a roller 7 of rubber or other cushion-forming material, and to .enable said roller and its shaft8 to be readily applied to and removed from the bar 6, each of the bars has in its upper side near its front end a vertically extending notch 19 to receive the vshaft 8, and the latter is retained in place in the, notch by means of a sliding latch bar 20 which lies over the shaft 8 when it is in position in the notch, and in which position the latch bar 2O is yieldingly held by a. spring 22, thelatch being guided in its longitudinal movements by means of pins or studs 2lin the bar 6 that engage slots in the latch bar. The portion of the latch bar which overlies the shaft 8 has its upper side beveled or inclined so that by the mere dropping of the shaft 8 downward into the slots 19, the latch bar willk be automatically moved out of thefpathk of the shaft 8. as it descends, andas soonfas ythe shaft Spasses beneath the latch bar it will be projected by the spring 22 over the shaft 8. At each endV whose other end is secured to an eye in a rod 16 secured tothe front end of the car at a much higherlevel so that at each side of the car there is a rearwardly and upwardly extending rope, and a netting formed of interlacing ropes 18 is stretched across from a rope 1S at one side' of the' fender to the rope 1S at, the opposite side,f

and from the rod 16 to a rod 10 that is detachably connected at its endsto the framev bars 6 just in rear of the roller 7, the rope nett1ng,.of course, Abeing' provided to receive a person falling on tothe fender.r Also at each side of the fender to .aid in supporting the same, a chain 15 attachedat one end to the rod 16, extends downward and ,forward and is attached at its front lower end to an eye 1st on the bar 6, and` preferably for a portion of its length from its forward end upward and rearward, the chain has a covering 17 of rubber or other cushion-forming material.

Extending from side to side of the fender isa series of horizontal parallel rods or bars 11 whose ends enter and are supportedby the grooves or channels in the bars 4 and 6 when the latter arein their opened or extend- `ed position, and thusLthe frame formed by these bars is braced orstiffened, but all the bars 11, except the rearmost one, are slidably supported by the bars/.and 6, s o that they may be moved together in a close or com-V pact condition when .the fender is to be c0llapsed or opened out to proper position for Y serving as braces or supports, and the .series of bars for their convenient manipulation are connected together on theA pantograph gprinciple, or by lazy-tongs 12, there being preferably two sets of lazy-tongs. Vhen the bars are opened vor extended, they are secured inthis position by fastening the forward bar 11 by means ofa removable pin 13 passing through alining holes in said bar and in the bar 6, and thel same pins are util,- ized with the same bar to hold the series of bars in their collapsed state.

To lower the front end of the fender when j vit is desired to use the fender, I employ a foot lever or treadle 25,which ispivoted to a bearing 24 on the fioor of the car, and which at yits forward end is connected by a link `26 to the-rear end of thefender framfmd has n1 fits foot-engaging portion conveniently situated, and I preferto lock the fender in both its positions, vemploying a latch V32 which engages a notch 28 in aplate 27 secured to and projecting below the floorof the car for maintaining the fender withhits front end vandprojecting above the top surface of the foot-engaging portion of the treadle 25 when the latch 32 interlocks with the notch 28, soA

'that when the foot is moved into contact with thetreadle 25 it will first engage the finger 33, and depressing it-will rock the latch 32 to disengage it from its notch 28', thereby leaving the treadle 25 free to be operated to lift the rear end of the fender frame and depress the front end thereof. To latch the fender with its front end in depressed position, I provide latch 29 also pivoted to the bearing 297 and having a fingen-or tooth 30 to engage a notch 28 in thev plate 27 and provided with an extension ,or arm 29; adapted to bel engagedby the foot gof the operator to disengagethe ylinger 30 4from its notch 28 when it is desired to release lthe fender so that under lthe weight.of the rear portion of the frame it may .automaticfally moveto lift its front endfto the desired position above the surface over which the Icar is moving. A spring 31 is so applied .to `both the latches 29 and 32 as .to tend normally vto cause them to engage their respective locking notches. yIt will. beseen that theroperation of the fender to move it into and out oflposition may ybe doneA instantaneously, and solely by the footof the operator. Having thus described our invention what we claim isj 1. A car fender having. a supporting iiframe, comprising longitudinally ,extending bars that are horizontally movable toward eachother, and a transversely extending bar detachably,Connected to said longitudinally extending ,bars and interposed between them. Q 2. A car fenderhaving las,upporting `fra-me i .coi'nprisinoP horizontally Vswinging bars movable toward eachy other,4 andaroller detachably lconnected with said bars and ex-v tending -between them.

e 3. A carfender having a frame compristingv foldable or collapsible side barshaving longitudinally extending grooves in their inner* sides and a series of foldable or expansible bars extending fromside barto side jgarand slidableinthe grooves of said side ars.

. ,4. In a carfender,-the combination of a ,rock shaft, longitudinally extending bars pivoted to said rockshaft, other'longitudinallyv extending bars connected tothe first mentioned, longitudinally ,extendingv bars Yfand pivotedto said shaft,` and extending forward of the same, andhaving their `forward portions jointed and movable .horizontally toward and from. each other, and vtransversely. extending barslying between said jointed bars.

5. In a car fender, the combination of a rock shaft,. longitudinally extending. bars pivoted to said rock shaft, otherlongitudinally extending barsy connected to the first mentioned:v longitudinally extending. bars andpivoted lto saidl shaft, and extending forportions jointed and movable horizontally toward and from each other, a roller detachably connected to the forward ends of said jointed bars, and a latch at each end of the roller.

6. In a car fender, the combination of a frame, means for pivotally supporting` the saine from a car, a body receiving` fabric secured at one end to said frame and at the other end adapted to be secured to the car, an operatinglever for rocking the frame to lower the front end of the fender, and a double latch mechanism for the lever consisting of a pair of levers having foot engaging port-ions contiguous to the operating lever.

7. In a car fender, the combination of a frame, means for pivotally supporting the same from a car7 an operating lever for rocking the frame, and a pair of latch levers to respectively lock the operating lever against movement in either direction, having foot engaging portions contiguous to the operating lever.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing 25 We have hereunto set our hands.

ROBERT C. MORGANSTERN. EDWARD A. SHEPHARD.

ltnesses:

TRUMAN J. GLovER,

LESTER L. CURL. 

